emotional responses
How To Embrace Your Shadow Self
Most people tend to shy away from acknowledging their dark or “shadow” side when it comes to spirituality.
In fact, the tendency to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of the self is due in large part to our religious or spiritual background. Throughout history, most traditions have encouraged people to suppress, deny, or transcend their human flaws and shortcomings in favor of higher ideals such as purity, salvation, or enlightenment.
This reluctance to face the shadow within continues to this day, with modern spiritual and metaphysical communities often favoring light, love, and positivity while largely ignoring the messy, difficult, and painful aspects of the human experience.
But by avoiding the shadow within, we deny ourselves the opportunity for a deeper understanding of our soul’s purpose and untapped possibilities for personal and spiritual growth.
According to Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who pioneered the concept of the “shadow” in psychology, “one is not enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Enlightenment isn’t about avoiding the shadow. Instead, it’s about facing it and integrating it into our being.
When we face the shadow within, we reclaim parts of ourselves that hold immense power, creativity, and insight. By delving into the deeper truths of our shadow selves, we can unravel the unconscious patterns that dictate our lives, allowing for true healing, transformation, and enlightenment.
Trust Your Gut First, Your Heart Second
How do you know that what you are doing is for your highest good? How do you know if what you want out of life is based on your own desires, or if it has been placed there to be achieved by the Universe?
Everyone has a higher purpose in this lifetime and yet many never seek it out or achieve it because the ego starts to become more prominent in their lives instead of their higher self.
When you were born, a deep-seeded life calling was placed within you. As children, we were able to tap into it, always knowing that we wanted to be a fireman, a policeman, a doctor, an astronaut, an artist, a lawyer, a dancer, a scientist, or a princess. Some of us just wanted to help others, even at a very young age. We would be kind, caring, and giving to other people, whether they were children, adults, or seniors.
Unfortunately, this energy has been buried over time by the society and culture we live in – whether it be teachers, parents or mentors.
Has anyone ever laughed at you when you told them what you wanted to do or be? Did someone say, “Go back and think about that, because that will never happen”? Each of us has a different story as to why we do or do not achieve our passion and purpose in life.
Today is the day to decide, “I will achieve my dreams as long as they come from spirit and are for my highest good.
Is Your Texting Pushing Him Away?
A new client recently contacted me about a promising romantic relationship. The first thing that became clear as I began to read for her was that she had a long history of dating men who seemed like potential long-term partners, but then suddenly disappeared or broke up with her after only a few months.
It quickly also became clear to me that texting was a significant factor in her dating problems. Misunderstandings due to texting have damaged the romantic, family, and friendship relationships of many people I have worked with as a psychic professional. This client was no exception.
As I read the energy around her situation, I sensed that she had a tendency to push men away by unnecessarily panicking when she did not feel completely in control. Guys can sense panic and controlling tendencies and for most men this is usually a big turnoff.
This kind of negative energy is also stressful and doesn’t improve the outcome of an uncertain situation. Excessive obsession, panic, and worry will not bring someone closer to you; in fact, it can push a potential long-term relationship away forever.
I then had to tell her that while I did see the potential for a long-term relationship in their connection, I didn’t currently see a long-term future for them if she continued with all the texting she was doing. I told her to take a step back, breathe, stop worrying so much, and definitely not try to resolve things through texting any more.
Do You Have A Past Life Connection?
Have you ever met someone and felt an instant connection that you couldn’t quite explain? Like you’ve known them forever, even though you just met? It’s that uncanny feeling of familiarity that makes you wonder if there’s more to your connection.
Sometimes, you might even experience déjà vu, feeling like you’ve been with this person before in another time or place. Maybe you even have some mental flashes of moments together in a different time and place, making you realize there’s a deeper reason for your bond.
These intense feelings and responses often come from cellular energy imprints and soul memories from our past lives. When you encounter someone you feel this way about, it’s usually because there’s some unfinished karmic business or soul growth that needs to happen, which is why you’ve crossed paths with them again in this lifetime.
Certain souls meet repeatedly across different lifetimes to resolve unresolved issues or karmic debts. There’s work to be done, lessons to be learned, and sometimes it takes more than one lifetime to get it all sorted out.
But not all these encounters are rosy. They can come with relationship challenges, tension, and conflict. For instance, a betrayal in a past life might manifest as trust issues in the present. It’s a journey that can be tough, but also deeply meaningful and very healing.
Always Feel Free To Own Your True Feelings
Has anyone ever told you that you are too happy? Or has anyone ever told you that you smile too much? My guess is probably never.
So, why is it that whenever we experience negative emotions, be it grief, despair, or depression, we are often told that there is a time limit to such feelings and that we need to get over it. In today’s society, it is essentially also taboo to express feelings of loneliness, sadness, fear, or simply being unhappy.
My brother died at the tender age of 12 and left such a void in our lives that my entire family grieved his loss for decades. Fortunately, we were raised to accept this as a perfectly normal and natural process for us. We all understood that we would work through our feelings of grief and loss in our own way and at our own pace. We did not grieve according to a schedule or set of societal rules.
I find that a useful way to think about feelings and how to process them is to think of our emotions as being processed by our heart and mind like food is processed by our body. Just like food, we need to break down, digest, and assimilate the lessons and insights in our emotions to serve as growth “nutrients” for the soul.
Why Do Empaths And Sensitives Often Feel Drained?
Have you ever left a meeting or social gathering feeling completely drained or energetically depleted?
Or maybe you’ve walked out of a store or other public place and noticed that you were short with your loved ones and irritable? Or you come home in the evening feeling sad or depressed for no apparent reason, after starting the day feeling cheerful and happy?
If this happens to you often, it is very likely that you are an empath or a highly sensitive person.
Empaths and highly sensitive people (HSPs) often feel drained by other people, social gatherings, crowds and certain environments due to several key aspects of their inherent nature and the way they interact with the world around them. Here are the major reasons for this phenomenon:
Genetic predisposition: Research suggests that the trait of high sensitivity is influenced by genetic factors that affect how individuals process sensory information and emotional stimuli. A key aspect of this genetic influence is the way the brain processes serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, appetite, sleep, and sensory perception. Variations in genes related to the serotonin transporter have been linked to differences in emotional reactivity and sensitivity to the environment. Studies have shown that individuals with certain variations of these genes may exhibit traits consistent with high sensitivity, such as deeper cognitive processing of sensory information, higher emotional reactivity, and increased empathy.
Anger Awareness For The Empowered Empath
Of all the emotional energies that empaths have to deal with, anger is one of the most powerful and potentially destructive, because empaths feel and react first, and think later.
An empath’s initial reaction to someone else’s angry feelings is usually some form of intense “fight or flight” response.
The more extroverted empath will often respond to the anger with equal force, usually involving a very intense and potentially catastrophic emotional outburst. The introverted empath will usually “flee” the scene or do everything possible to avoid the person who is emitting the anger.
After the initial reaction, the empath’s emotional state will often then shift to sadness, anxiety, or feeling drained and depressed at seemingly inappropriate times and for no apparent reason.
Because it is very common for empaths to be intensely aware of the feelings, moods, and motives of others, sometimes even before others are aware of their own feelings, a strong emotion like anger deeply affects us. And if the other person is a spouse or partner in a romantic relationship, anger can become a proverbial land mine. Ditto if it is a co-worker or employer.